Nowadays names usually have no special meaning. They are given because parents like them, because they are fashionable, or perhaps in honour of some respected relation, friend, or forbear. Names are simply labels by which we are called. In former times they were descriptive of qualities assumed, anticipated, or actual. If given at birth the hope was that they would be predictive and if granted in later years they were bestowed to mark characteristics that were present – either positive or negative. Names were of personal significance and an index to the nature and office of those who bore them. They pointed to capacities or the absence of them. They were summaries of disposition, deeds, and destiny and they were carefully awarded. In Holy Scripture the Name or Names of God are equivalent with his being. They refer to his nature, his attributes, and his action. They are informational for our praise, obedience, and trust. They evoke our fear and love. They are keys to knowing him. They are worthy of his majesty and serve to make his mercy well known. Our faith is lodged in nothing abstract but in One abundantly and so clearly self-revealed. Isaiah’s identification of the promised Christ is remarkably impressive and we have difficulty in comprehending the stature of the One who came among us with such modesty. As much as we recite Isaiah’s lengthy list our minds can scarcely receive its significance, for Jesus occupies such a lofty status and possesses unsurpassable distinctions, and if we were to weigh them seriously for a few moments we would be overwhelmed. And he will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God, the Mighty One, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9: 6 Wonderful – Our Saviour the Lord Jesus is astounding in his supernatural abilities; his wisdom and his power. His speech, when well considered, leaves us breathless. Here is One unfolding the insights and intents of God because he has been schooled by the Father (Isa 50:4) and knows him and his mind exhaustively (John). His wisdom chooses, and his power secures, successful action. Counsellor – His instruction and advice are bound to be dependable and effective. His counsel cannot be flawed and his competence cannot fail. He imparts true knowledge and guides us in its use. He is the Sage par excellence whom we consult continually. He disposes and directs our minds and tendencies as often as we refer to him and overrules when we omit to do so. His divine knowledge, past, present, and future from our perspective, is our only safe resort. God – In Jesus we see features both human and divine. We delight in his deity and unreservedly worship him as God. But what a fact to predicate concerning Jesus. Truly the One who took our flesh and walked our Earth was an incomparable visitor beyond our powers of comprehension. Bernard of Clairvaux revels in the thought: How sweet it is to see as man the Creator of humanity. The thought is stupefying. The Mighty One – What God will determine in sovereignty and design by wisdom he will achieve by power. Nothing will frustrate him, neither difficulty nor opposition. A Ruler divine and perfect in wisdom will achieve what he decides in righteousness and justice. His is a throne that cannot be overthrown. His is a strength that cannot be challenged. His is a purpose that nothing can change. To resist God is to court ruin. To trust God is to attain immeasurable blessing. What he conceives he completes and his chosen are the beneficiaries of inestimable favours forever. Everlasting Father – This title speaks of the Saviour’s care through a love and provision that is as everlasting as himself. His compassion toward his people is as eternal as he is. It was planned, is present, and a sure prospect. What a marvel that God’s loving kindness has no beginning or end. Care, comfort, and correction will attend us until we enter the zone of his eternity and paradise will be the ultimate enjoyment of God’s paternal care and commitment. We will at last grasp the permanency of divine affection. Prince of Peace – All the distinctions that Jesus bears denote the ideal conditions prevailing over redeemed mankind in his projected kingdom. At God’s side for ever we will perceive that he is, without reservation, on our side to bless and preserve. Our total welfare will be secured in every dimension of our life with God. There will be an imperturbable sense of the utmost indwelling felicity and surrounding happiness. The foretaste of heaven in the Lord’s supper will be fulfilled, for “then we dwell in Christ, and Christ in us”, having obtained “remission of our sins and all other benefits of his passion”. The saints’ peace with God and with each other will be perfect and perpetual. This reunion in relationships is the ultimate goal of kingship which Jesus will achieve gloriously and completely. Christ himself will have created this peace through his cross and by virtue of his crown. It all leads us back to the fact that he is Wonderful and achieves this state of bliss through his divine virtues and potency. The Lord Jesus is unequalled by anything or anyone in creation. He is unique in his person, power, and perfection(s). He is unique in his Saviourhood. With all the names that accrue to his singular splendour it is apparent that there is no other Name to trust for salvation than that of the God-man. Only he is extolled as the deliverer of mankind. Only he comes with the credentials and capacity to save. Pagan peoples turn to fictitious or futile rivals. Misled Christians have resorted to saints, angels, and even our Lord’s mother for assistance that these cannot afford nor wish to. When we see and appreciate Isaiah’s portrayal of the Lord Jesus it would be unimaginable to rely on anyone else. It is folly to suggest any other relief or assistance from any other source. All other options and idols must be firmly refused. Christ is more than sufficient for eternal wellbeing. How can we possibly underrate and insult him? Article XXV1 of the Belgic Confession puts the matter plainly to us: We believe that we have no access unto God but alone through the only Mediator and Advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous . . . . But this mediator, whom the Father has appointed between him and us, ought in no wise to affright us by his majesty, or cause us to seek another according to our fancy. For there is no creature, either in heaven or on earth, who loves us more than Jesus Christ; who, though existing in the form of God, yet emptied himself, being made in the likeness of men and of a servant for us, and in all things was made like unto his brethren. If, then we should seek for another Mediator who would be favourably inclined towards us, whom could we find who loved us more than he who laid down his life for us, even while we were his enemies?. . . . And who will be sooner heard than the own well beloved Son of God?RJS

Colossians 4: 7 – 18It is impossible to quantify the vast volume of truth to be gathered from the writings of St. Paul. Every doctrine crucial to Christian faith and life is embedded and extended throughout the range of his epistles so that no-one has been more influential in the course of Christian thought and history than the great servant and scholar of Jesus Christ. Paul is profound and expounds upon the deepest themes of the gospel unfolding the mystery of Christ in the most intriguing and stimulating manner that remains unfathomable. Paul’s colleague Peter acknowledges the mental and spiritual challenge that Paul poses to his readers in saying that he, “Wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him . . . . His letters contain some things that are hard to understand . . . (2 Peter 3:15-16). Paul was not obscure but too clear for the liking of many from his time to ours. The issues he tackled were huge and not everyone was willing to go the whole way with him without diluting or distorting his teaching. Hubris or heretical tendencies (perverse choice) prevented them from gaining assent to divine wisdom conveyed through the mind and speech of the apostle. Paul was a man to ponder – continually. The more that Paul is grasped the more we apprehend what is yet to be gained. His skill with existing Scripture (OT) informs and shapes Scripture in the making (NT), of which his letters are a major part as we see from Peter’s endorsement. A prepared and patient salvation is Paul’s great message – God’s purpose and proclamation of grace. Nothing in Scripture is surplus to requirement, and most certainly the opening and closing greetings of Paul’s letters are not to be casually overlooked. There is much to be gleaned from the manner in which he addresses the audiences of his letters to be read in several churches as well those for whom they were originally designated. They reveal Paul’s personal attitudes toward and affection for the addressees and exhibit the vitality of grace in human relationships. Paul’s teaching is not mere theory but actual in its effects. Folk who are grasped by grace become gracious. The will of God which they study and adore really works in and through them. Apostolic greetings reflect this reality. They illustrate the character of Paul and indicate his evaluation of his colleagues and his appreciation of their ministry. Paul comes over as a person of conviction and compassion. This is so clearly demonstrated in his final greetings to the Colossians.Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. This is high commendation indeed and ought to count in anyone’s credentials for ministry far above some of the criteria that presently prevail in parish advertisements. Tychicus is reliable and honest and Paul entrusts him with the encouragement of fellow believers. That can only mean that Tychicus is not only loyal to Paul personally but to the gospel that Paul preaches. He is a worthy emissary. He is coming with Onesimus – a mere slave who disgraced himself by running away. It would be like bringing home the local delinquent, but Paul calls him: our faithful and dear brother. Something has changed and a man without rights or dignity in society has become useful to the apostle who writes warmly in a letter to his owner Philemon concerning the compassionate acceptance of a punishable absconder. My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings. This loyal companion of Paul had shared danger with him in Ephesus (Acts 19:29), shares confinement with him in Rome, and knows what it is to be captive to Christ. As does Mark (You havereceived instructions about him). Yes, Mark. Another deserter. Most likely, from cumulative evidence, the young man who fled at Jesus’ arrest (Mk 14: 51-52), and the man who forsook Paul and Barnabas in Pamphylia (Acts15:38). If he comes toyou, welcome him. At one time Paul was adamant that Mark should not be one of the team and he fell out with Barnabas over this matter, but now he is reinstated as a valued co-worker. Mark was the man who recorded Peter’s memoirs – a man who himself was reinstated (John 21: 15ff). It seems that Paul in his final greetings does not regard great failings among the chosen of God as final. The fallen may be restored and Onesimus, Mark, and Peter are examples of a fresh start through grace and usefulness beyond human expectation. Such allowances must be made for the penitent in our times also. Our judgements of others may, understandably, be cautious, but should never be final. The grace of God performs wonderful transformations in even the unlikely.Jesus who is Justus also sends greetings. With so many of his nation opposed to him it is a comfort for Paul to have sympathetic Jews at his side and Christians will always retain a sympathetic attitude towards the Jews in the prayerful hope that one day many will be re-grafted into the olive tree (Romans 11:11ff). Epaphras who had earlier nurtured the believers at Colosse has not lessened in his fervour for the church there. Absent from the brethren he wrestles in prayer for them, his intercessions contributing mightily to their establishment and endurance in the faith. Paul says, “he is working hard for you” and for those at sister congregations, which seems to show that prayer is sometimes vigorous and arduous. Our dear friendLuke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings. The beloved physician displays his endearing qualities in his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. He was a careful and accurate narrator of the ministry of Jesus and the progress of the early church. What he notes, commends, and exhorts by implication shows perception, sensitivity, and compassion. He is a healer of souls and circumstances through the gospel of the Healer who has his entire allegiance and adoration. Luke exerts energy and eloquence in advocacy of the grace of God. Demas is another matter. Reference to him is sparse. He was an entity with Paul but Paul does not describe him or enthuse over him. He is nominally a colleague who soon proves to be untrue. Demas’ true love was the world that enticed him back (2 Timothy 4:9). Here was a deserter who did not return, so far as we know. He is proof that proximity to the cause of Christ does not signify authenticity of faith. Peter’s exhortation to make our “calling and election sure” (1 Peter 1:10) is sage advice. Demas was with the apostolic team but not a genuine member as John observed of many of the hasty and shallow confessors of Christ: “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us” (1 John 2: 19). Often those whose conversion is quick in the end do not stick. Nympha and the church in the house at Laodicea were to exchange letters from Paul with Colosse and this was for the up-building of faith and fellowship (v16). Regional churches were to unify and not remain independent units. Tell Archippus. Archippus was assigned a task of which we are not apprised. See to it that youcomplete the work you have received in the Lord. Until there is clear evidence to the contrary an existing calling must be completed. We never give in until another direction is given. Paul cares about his greetings and accordingly appends his name, reminding the faithful that all followers of Jesus face their trials. Remember my chains.RJS

Luke 23: 39 – 43 Throughout his life Jesus mingled with sinners. At his death he was crucified between two criminals. Jesus’ history on earth was occupied with the welfare of lawbreakers. He socialized with those who breached the divine will and suffered for them. From the outset of his ministry he announced the kingdom to those in revolt against heaven. At the onset of death he admitted a felon to paradise. From start to finish Jesus was concerned for transgressors. The three crosses and their agonized victims sum up the divine purpose of human salvation. Their portrayal in Holy Scripture exemplifies the poignancy and importance of the issue of human destiny and as to how it may fail or find the favour of God. The focus on Calvary confronts us with the reality of our condition and the conclusion of each life on earth. We are faced with the only alternatives presented to man – to be citizens of the kingdom or outcasts for ever. The tale of the two thieves on either side of the dying Saviour forewarns us as to the possibilities for each immortal soul at the point of death and on the Day of Judgment. The question of greatest importance is posed to our minds: Shall we be on the right side of the Redeemer and with him everlastingly, or will we be on the wrong side and consigned to eternal banishment.

These few verses address a matter of infinite consequence. We are all advancing to paradise or peril. Our estimate of Jesus is vital to the outcome. Our understanding of his cross brings us to the borderline of life and death. If it is just the death of someone we regard with contempt, or even intend to ignore as of no account, we must look carefully at the attitude of the robber who hurled insults at Jesus and tremble at our identification with him. If the crucifixion of Jesus is the sinner’s entrance to the kingdom then we may die in the peace of the repentant and believing criminal who amazingly grasped the essence of the gospel in his last moments.

Two miserable men typify the sifting of all people into two groups Jesus described as the sheep and the goats. At the centre of the great divide hangs the Lord Jesus. We may ridicule his sacrifice or rely upon it. We may refuse the Saviour of the world or find our refuge in him. Three crosses silhouetted against the backdrop of history suggest alternative endings to our personal histories in this fast fading world. Eternity looms near.

Jesus is at the centre of our sober consideration. On the cross to which he was nailed he fulfilled the reason for his coming. “A body you prepared for me” acknowledges the Christ (Hebrews 10:5). In his flesh he came to weather the storms of divine wrath against human sin. He erases the guilt of penitent believers and averts the punishment due to them as Propitiator who removes all offence and establishes an atonement that affords peace with God for every sinner who rests in his obedience and death on their behalf (1 John 2: 1-2). The innocent One takes the place of those righteously condemned: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for as it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree’” (Galatians 3:13). As Paul remarks concerning all persons of gospel faith: “So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2: 16). The criminals Christ came to represent and substitute for cannot put themselves right with God for they are hopelessly on the wrong side of the law and must bear the alienation and penalty due to disobedience. Christ’s cross and bloodshedding is the only means of pardon and acceptance with God. This cross placed conspicuously in the midst of sinners is the only place to which we can look for deliverance. To be cleared of blame and restored to perfect rectitude we must look trustingly to that cross and place our confidence in the crucified. “Look”, says John the Baptist, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). This was Jesus’ work whilst affixed to an instrument of deadly wood. All through his life and at the hour of death he avowed to his Father, “Here I am, I have come to do your will” (Hebrews 10: 9). The consequence follows in Hebrews 10:10: “And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”. That is the accomplishment of the man on the cross in the middle of all our disobedience and defilement. He lives and dies and lives again for the rescue of sinners, and his effort and sacrifice are in complete harmony with the will of his Father. God sent his Son that we may be reconciled through the Son to him. The cross is planted firmly at the solid base beneath the mire in which we wallow in corruption and misery so that we may cling to it’s victim for our escape: “There we leave you in that blessed dependency, to hang upon him that hangs upon the Crosse, there bath in his teares, there suck at his woundes, and lye downe in peace in his grave, till hee vouchsafe you a resurrection, and an ascension into that Kingdome, which he hath purchas’d for you, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood” (John Donne).

One of the criminals beside Jesus knew nothing of the meaning of the cross of the “middle man”. He apprehended nothing of the go-between who would rejoin mankind to God. He insulted and reviled the intermediary seeing only futility and helplessness in the death of the Lord Jesus. Rather than confess and trust Jesus he spoke contemptuously and tauntingly, “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us”. His eyes had not been opened to recognize the Messiah (cf Luke 24:31). He didn’t fully appreciate the fact of his guilt and his appointment with justice according to the law of Rome. He sneered at Jesus without any concept of the Saviour’s innocence. Jesus was just an enthusiast who fell foul of the authorities because of outrageous speech, claims, and actions. Bound to his deserved cross the felon may as well have been blindfolded to the most exceptional execution in history. By his rash refusal and impenitence the first mentioned of the robbers was excluded from the kingdom ushered in by the torments of the Saviour.

The second thief, perhaps a bandit like Barabbas, viewed Jesus differently. Perhaps, as George Caird has suggested, the inscription above Jesus was meditated upon and its unintended truth wrought its saving miracle, for an impulse of the Holy Spirit determined that Pilate should insist upon the words, “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS” (Luke 23:38). In a wondrous way, contrary to all expectations, one thief on a cross came to comprehend something of the meaning of Jesus’ cross. “This man has done nothing wrong”. Here was not a thief or a criminal of any kind. He took nothing but came to give everything. Great faith is compacted in the request of the penitent robber. “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” It is a prayer for all souls who know and admit their criminality. It parallels the exhortation of Donne. It is a simple, sweet prayer of a sufferer on the verge of death. On the cross, his own and that of Jesus, he glimpsed an opening to heaven created by the King of Glory himself. As his physical life ebbed away he heard the assurance of eternal life from Life himself: “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise”. Dying next to Jesus he went to live with him forever, having been in this world an anonymous, disreputable individual wholly unworthy of such an honour.

There is a certain naivety among Christians as to the world’s deep hatred of the Lord Jesus Christ and the ensuing lifelong conflict that the believer will always have with this world. Current Evangelicalism is afflicted with a shallow view of human sin. Evil deeds are now characterized as mere mistakes or sins of infirmity that render the perpetrator a victim of inherited proclivities or poor upbringing and adverse circumstances. It is not easy to fully and freely admit that we are sinners and heirs of a rebellious nature. It is not simply that our words and deeds disclose a bias to wickedness occasionally. The fact is that our disposition and desires tend to sinfulness because our nature is corrupt and consequently hostile to God. The point is not really or universally grasped by many professed believers. We are not only in need of a degree help, but outright deliverance from self, and a recreated nature. We must come to realize that we are inherently hostile to God. This radical insight needs strong emphasis for our realization of the need of a Saviour – not just a helping hand but a new heart or regeneration that alters the whole orientation of our core being. Generally, gospel preaching is too superficial. We are armed and defiant towards God. We have no capacity to turn to him, love him, or trust him. We credit man with a goodness and ability he does not possess. We flatter him with what he can do to prepare for salvation. Our helplessness and dependence upon God is total. Our need of grace is urgent. Our natural state is perilous. Our estimate of the powers of the human will sedates us into carelessness and ambivalence about the wellbeing of the soul. We may concede the bias of the will to sin but not candidly acknowledge its bondage to Satan and our own evil inclinations and preferences determined by our fallen nature.

Our hearts, by nature, are loaded with enmity towards God. That is a barrier to repentance and return that we cannot choose to surmount. Grace-as-disposition must be granted to us as Thomas Aquinas admits. When we share that admission concerning ourselves by the grace of God we have no alternative but to resort to prayer. How many Christians know and confess in their hearts that they do not have needs alone that God can meet but an antipathy to God that only he can tame and reverse. Look at Paul’s estimate of the natural man: Those who live according to the sinful nature (all of us) have their minds set (fixed, cemented) on what that nature desires (our natural disposition which only God can change) . . . . The mind of sinful man (comprehending all our faculties and leanings) is death (helpless and unresponsiveto God) . . . . the sinful mind is hostile to God (our attitude from birth bereft ofrighteousness). It does not submit to God’s law (rebellious), nor can it do so (inability through the overpowering of sinful choice – no alternative but servitudeto self and Satan). Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God (attract him, gain his approval, or comply with his nature). This Pauline description of man devoid of grace rarely reaches the pulpit if popularity and prosperity are the central aims of ministry. How many of the “converted” are willing to concede that they are hostile to God and not just in need of his help? Where is this spur to humility and contrition nowadays? Given that portrayal of human nature we cannot be shocked by the assertion that the world hates Jesus Christ and the evidence is mounting daily from every quarter from the wise, the powerful, the religious, and the irreligious (as we would expect). Cultures, for all their differences, are coalescing in this hostility to God and his truth. Who knows what imposed and received “orthodoxies” (scientific, ideological, etc) are reliable and in accord with reality? We have a plethora of information, expert advice and opinion, but where is truth in this world hostile to God? With what lies and delusions is mankind influenced through the god of this world? Man hates God and that subjective stance skews the way he sees and represents things. Dubious evidence for what man wants to believe crops up everywhere and in every discipline. Daily life in humble fellowship with God is our only sure option as we make our way through the maze of ideas and opinions where the experts are so certain and yet in constant contradiction of their colleagues of equal repute. Prior to regeneration there is hatred for Christ. Without regeneration that hostility is rabid even if restrained by common grace. We are not reaching out to a world that is keen to know the Lord Jesus but a world where he would be killed once again as when he came to us in the Incarnation. Listen to the great ones of the earth in their arrogance against him. Hear the proud words of the framers of contemporary opinion. Mankind is geared for war with God. Our concern for sinners must be sincere but not sentimental. Sentimentality, as creeping as kudzu, is strangling the Church and choking its witness. What greeted the Lord Jesus at his advent among those warned to welcome him by countless prophetic utterances? The light shines in thedarkness and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5). Hostility and fierce opposition were awaiting the Saviour at his birth. Everyone who does evil hates thelight (John 3: 20). The Light has come into the world but Satan and his servants have always striven to violently, but vainly, extinguish it. Jesus knew that he was in a world that despised him. At the early stages of his ministry Jesus told the disciples, not yet notorious through knowing him, “The world cannot hate you, butit hates me because I testify that what it does is evil” (John 7:7). The antipathy directed at our Redeemer was evidence of human distaste for the Father represented by the Son. “He who hates me hates my Father as well” (John 15:23). Human nature is averse to God comprehensively. It opposes the Father, attacks the Son, and resists the Spirit. It can only be conquered and pacified by omnipotent grace. In the meantime the human spirit is filled with malice and driven by viciousness towards God. This is our incentive for crying, “Repent”, knowing that only God can grant it: When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life” (Acts 11:18). So if the Lord Jesus was so vehemently hated why should we be immune to such contempt and cruelty as was meted out to him? If they see his resemblance in us they will hate us too, and life will be a battlefield. As Jesus remarked when the disciples were clearly identified as his followers, “If the world hates you, keep inmind that it hated me first” (John 15:18). And John himself, taking the words of Christ to heart, both warns and comforts us with his observation, confirmed by his own experience, “Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you” (1 John 3:13). Christian proclamation needs to be honest and forthright for our relationship with God to be authentic and effective. Our hearts were once alienated from him, and not just by indifference or occasional wrongdoing, but through plain and inexcusable hatred for him and his holiness. How can a fallen, enslaved, and captive nature will holiness and desire the holy One? We are enemies that have been won to surrender through irresistible divine love. We have been caused willingly to lay down our arms with which we fight and fend off the Lord. And now we live in alien territory surrounded by foes, and we are engaged in combat ceaselessly. The world that hates Jesus hates us and we should not relax our guard. RJS